Keeping It Real: Tips and Tricks for Illustrating NF Books - Angela Quezada Padron

Angela Quezada Padron is an author-illustrator of both fiction and nonfiction children's books. She has worked as an educator, curriculum developer, fine artist, musician, novice fashion designer, and is also the owner of Dream Jar Publishing, a small independent publisher of books for young readers.

Angela's session provided a great set of tips tailored to upping your skills as a nonfiction illustrator, as well as smart craft tips that enhance any kind of illustration work. 

She briefly described Melissa Stewart's five types of nonfiction with example titles for each noting the wide age range nonfiction books for kids covers and how illustrators can find work illustrating for any category. If not a whole book, a lot of nonfiction titles still do work-for-hire for illustrated covers, spot illustrations or diagrams. Separate from trade published nonfiction books, educational publishers also hire freelance illustrators and Angela sees that work as an entry point into the publishing world for many artists.

Angela covers best practices when researching a person or topic: Tips on working with primary sources, how to ethically use photo references, and the need for checking and securing permissions. Angela notes the art spread shown from her example titles may not be hyper-realistic looking yet are still accurate and authentic to their subjects.

Interior spread from Angela Quezada Padron's 
As the Seas Rise: Nicole Hernández Hammer and the Fight for Climate Justice

She shares examples of illustrated spreads that succeed in telling a true story in unique or out-of-the-box ways with relevant stylization or artistic interpretation that finds ways to connect back to the subject matter whether personally or culturally.

Illustrated spread by Martina Peluso from 
Tango Man: The Musical Life of Astor Piazzolla (written by Erin Fennell, out Fall 2027)

Check out the rest of Angela's illustrating tips by viewing the session in full via the instant replays and follow along with the rest of the conference. You can still register at https://www.scbwi.org/events/virtual-summer-conference-2026. Session replays will be available until September 13th, 2026.

Creating Conflict and Tension in MG & YA: Elana K Arnold

 

Elana K. Arnold writes books for and about children and teens. She earned her master's degree in Creative Writing from UC Davis and lives in Huntington Beach, CA, with her family and a menagerie of animals. 

Here we'll be talking about: conflict, tension, stakes, and suspense. 

Suspense is one thing that can create tension, but it's not the only thing. 

To create conflict it's important to know this question:  What does the character want, and why can't they have the thing they want? 

A good question to ask in mg and ya to tap into the internal conflict is: What is my character's wound?

Elana encourages us to get comfortable about being uncomfortable with our work. It's such a good measurement for if a scene needs work. 

Are your scenes flat? Scenes become flat if:

• the character has no clear goal
• everyone says exactly what they mean
• the outcome is predictable
• nothing changes if the character fails
• the conflict repeats without escalating 

Where does tension come from? 

• When your character has competing desire(s)
• When the character is missing necessary information
• When things go from bad to worse (escalation) 
• When the character has limited options

A great second question to ask: What else do they want that makes perusing that first desire difficult? 

A key is to avoid casual connections between scenes (and then...), instead make sure they are causal (because, therefore, but...). 

Beyond Big Publishing: Alternative Paths to a Thriving Children's Book Career: Dhonielle Clayton & Zetta Elliot

Beyond Big Publishing: Alternative Paths to a Thriving Children's Book Career: 

Dhonielle Clayton & Zetta Elliot

Traditional publishing houses aren't the only road to success. Discover how book packagers, hybrid publishers, small presses, and self-publishing are empowering children's and YA book creators. Hear from those who are making it work.

The panel was split into four different categories: Self Publishing, Hybrid & Partnership Publishing, Book Packaging and Small Press Publishing. 

We began with Self publishing. 

Zetta, who has been very successful in self-publishing, made a powerpoint to take us through her journey in self publishing. 

Zetta: "Not everyone publishes to get rich." As a Black feminist author, she considers the work she creates as an act of resistance and has made it her mission to help people understand how a book is published. Her motivative is to share and not gate keep, which she feels can happen with traditional publishing. 

"You have to ask yourself why you are publishing for children, what your definition of success is? Awards might not be a possibility through self-publishing but what Zetta wanted was sovereignty, so this is a great space for her though self publishing can be a blessing and burden.

Zetta knows that Black women have traditionally struggled to get published so they created their own space. Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press was founded in 1980 and this gave Zetta a place to start. 

With a wide range of work, across many genres, Zetta has used many platforms for her published works such a Createspace, Lulu, and KDP through Amazon, to name a few. She uses platforms like Upwork to find illustrators and has a strict policy of not using AI. Her book series "Dragon in a Bag" was traditionally published and supplements her self published work, but she prefers and has found great success in being the sole proprietor of her work.

She was transparent about how much she makes from self publishing, and though it isn't as much as what she made with her more commercial books, she revels in the autonomy and has built a catalog that is used throughout schools and universities, only further fueling her fire to create books with untold stories in them.

 

Zetta offered up a definition for Community-Based Publishing:

Community-based publishing uses small independent presses and/or print-on-demand technology to produce books (and other media) that reflects the values, cultural practices, and history of a particular community. It operates without outsider approval and/or interference and it prioritizes the welfare of community members over commercial success (people over profit).

Marginalized communities can be excluded and when operating outside of the existing system, traditional publishing can be closed and very exclusive. For example, if your work isn't reviewed, libraries and even, indie bookstores won't carry it!

"They are missing out on so many stories" That is why she feels it is an act of resistance. 

Soon we moved onto Book Packagers, and Dhonielle Clayton took the stage!

Dhonielle spoke about how you can utilize book packaging to further your career! As she was navigating the publishing world, she found herself writing books under an alias, and ghostwriting big series books and IP that already existed. You find that big corporations, like Disney and Marvel, create media like this;  they create with a team, but have been known to exclude marginalized writers.

This spurred her on to create more opportunities for those who need to learn how to write well, how to write quickly, learn commercial plotting, etc. That is why she developed her company, Electric Postcard Entertainment, an IP story company that creates diverse books for all ages in order to give opportunities to those marginalized groups.

Her goal is to help make connections and show the writers what she knows, giving them tools that they can use for their own manuscripts and work. "Take what you need. We are in this together." Dhonielle wants make sure the writers get compensated in working in book packaging. 

"Packaging is a way to write in someone else's sandbox." - Dhonielle 

What Dhonielle is looking for is— can you collaborate? Do you have a voice? Think of a television writing room. "I can teach you how to write a plot, well-rounded characters, commercial and elevator pitches, building blocks but can you write in a voice and in the voice of the project."

PARTING THOUGHT: 

Zetta: Continuous check in with yourself, why you want to write children book, why do you want your children's book to exist? Think about what would success look like for you, what would make me happy?

Dhonielle: Look at book packaging as school, something to learn from while on your journey. We all dream about being an author, so look to "sharpening your skills, and paying your bills" while you navigate your journey in publishing. And remember, with book packaging, you won't be able to come in and dictate as you translate someone else's story, but think of it as a practice. 

For more insight on the other categories, don't forget to check out the blogs written by Jaime and Jolie, who covered our other fabulous panelists!

About Dhonielle Clayton

DHONIELLE J. CLAYTON was born in the suburbs of Washington, DC and spent her childhood Saturdays at the comic book store with her father and most evenings hiding beneath her grandmother’s dining room table with a stack of books. She earned a BA in English at Wake Forest University. She was an English teacher for three years and worked with educational curriculum. Being surrounded by children, Dhonielle re-discovered her love of children’s literature and earned a MA in Children’s and Young Adult Literature from Hollins University, and an MFA in Writing for Children. She is a middle school librarian at Harlem Village Academies. She is co-founder of the lit packaging company, CAKE Literary, a creative kitchen that whips up decadent literary confections for middle grade, YA, and women's fiction readers that aims to bring diversity to high concept material. Her book TINY PRETTY THINGS co-written with her CAKE Literary co-founder will be out in summer 2015 from Harper Teen.

About Zetta ElliotI am the author of over forty books for young readers, including the award-winning picture books Bird and A Place Inside of Me. My bestseller Dragons in a Bag was selected for the 2021 Global Read Aloud. My young adult poetry collection, Say Her Name, won the 2021 Lion and the Unicorn Award for Excellence in North American Poetry. My verse novel, Moonwalking (co-authored with Lyn Miller-Lachmann), made the 2023 Notable Books for a Global Society list. My own imprint, Rosetta Press, generates culturally relevant stories that center children who have been misrepresented and/or rendered invisible in children’s literature. My latest picture book is A Song for Juneteenth (May 2026, LBYR).www.zettaelliott.com

Industry Panel: Beyond Big Publishing - Jane Friedman

Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs and received a starred review from Library Journal. As part of her work at Writers Digest she was on the 'self published' beat and has been watching that side of the book world for decades. 

Moderator Laurie Miller explains this panel will look at the four main paths to publication outside of big trade houses: self-publishing, hybrid, book packaging, and small or indie press deals and asks Jane to give brief definitions of each. 

Jane defining self-publishing: To take on all the responsibilities of the publisher for yourself. That includes who you work with to edit, print, host, and market the book. You set the budget, incurring all costs and all profits. 

Jane sees that self-published adult books still do better in sales than children's books, but Young Adult, or any book that is just text in black and white can earn profits since you can still be more competitive in your pricing. Adding color imagery to a self-published book increases the cost per unit, especially if it's a print-on-demand title, and kids still prefer physical picturebooks to their ebook versions.

Jane mentions Darcy Pattison is a great resource on making a living self publishing for kids. 

Hybrid publishing defined by Jane: The author pays a firm to assist them with the publishing process. These firms are called: 'paid publishing services', 'assisted', or 'partner' besides hybrid. What they all have in common is the author is paying to get the book printed and distributed by the hybrid publishing partner. Jane advises authors to please not spend money they don't have. If budgets approach five figures, Jane finds that the likelihood of an average title making a profit with a hybrid publisher disappears.

Jane defines small press and independent publishing as still on the traditional publishing side of the business because the author does not pay anything up front. That said, there may be lower advances or maybe no advances. And there may not be the same range of support that is available at a big name, big budget publisher. 

Jane briefly describes book packagers: Companies that put together projects for other publishers to then print and distribute. A company might be putting together the talent and idea and pitching it, or the publisher has the idea/owns the IP and is looking to the packagers to team up creators that can work on assignment. Like Sweet Valley High, Nancy Drew, or Pretty Little Liars, the writing or art is often work-for-hire on existing IP, but there are many, many scenarios for book packaging projects.

NANCY DREW covers! Book packagers have been around since the 1890s?!

Industry Panel: Beyond Big Publishing: Alternative Paths to a Thriving Children's Book Career - Angela Engel and Michele McAvoy

Originally from Minneapolis, MN, Angela Engel now calls Oakland, CA, home. With extensive experience in sales and marketing for renowned publishing leaders like Chronicle Books, Ten Speed Press, Cameron + Company, Dwell Studio, and Moleskine, she has cultivated a deep understanding of the industry. As the CEO and Publisher of The Collective Book Studio, Angela is dedicated to empowering authors, offering comprehensive support to bring their books to life from concept to completion. 

Hybrid Publish:

Angela has taken her many years of experience working in traditional publishing to a hybrid model as CEO and Publisher of The Collective Books Studio. Angela partners with authors in new ways, contracting with books creators, working with them based on their goals. She's able to help them gain access to things (like reviews) they wouldn't otherwise have access to. 

There is still a submission process. The Collective Book Studio only accepts about 5% of the children's books submitted. A big part of that reason is because publishing a children's book is very expensive. 

In this hybrid format, book creators pay for the service, and The Collective Book Studio handles publishing, marketing, and distribution services. 

If you're a business or a brand, Angela might be a good avenue for you. 

Parting words: Look at your contract, look at your term. You should be getting a contract. Be open to new business models. Her model isn't perfect, or right for just anyone. Remember it's your business and your journey. Know you should not have to pay for a submission. 

Michele McAvoy is a multi-award-winning children's book author, publisher, attorney, and educator from New Jersey. While Michele wears many hats, they all point towards a single goal, bring entertaining and meaningful stories to kids. Michele is the owner and publisher of The Little Press. Michele's published titles include Willa the Werewolf, Buckingham Gets A New Shell, Cookie & Milk, and (forthcoming) Toby Undone. www.michelemcavoy.com

Small Presses (with some notes on self-publishing):

Michele started by self-published a tittle in 2014. 

She notes self-publishing can be a place to springboard your career, allowing you to learn the process and the business. 

If you're self-publishing, Michele recommends finding illustrators on Instagram. You might find illustrators just starting their career, open to illustrating a self-published book 

The Little Press is a small press. It is a traditional publisher. Many people want the big book deal, but that's extremely hard. So a small press might offer the option to get out there and become a published writer or illustrator. 

When you're looking at a small press, know there are a lot out there. Print-on-demand (a book prints once the sale has happened) has made it much easier for small presses, because print runs are very expensive. If you're looking at a small press, Michele recommends taking a close look at what they publish. Order one of their books. Look at it. Do you like it? You need to like. You also want to be sure to ask any questions you have. 

Parting words: In terms of working with a small press, don't exclude them. Ask questions. Respect their boundaries, like being closed to submission. Don't be afraid to revise and rework your manuscripts. It's a good thing, it's part of the process. 

Navigating Nonfiction - Melissa Stewart

Melissa Stewart has written more than 200 science books for children! Her work has been translated into more than a dozen languages and garnered such awards as the Sibert Honor, AAAS/Subaru Prize for Excellence in Science Books, eighteen NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students, two Green Earth Book Awards, and four ALA Notables. She co-wrote 5 Kinds of Nonfiction: Enriching Reading and Writing Instruction with Children’s Books as well as maintains the award-winning blog Celebrate Nonfiction.

Melissa helps explain the popularity and impact of different types of kids' nonfiction titles in today's publishing market. Changes in the economy at macro and micro levels as well as state standard educational requirements have had a massive impact on shaping not only what types of nonfiction books are getting published but what is even considered an 'informational' text today. 

When looking at sales only from typical bookstore outlets or a bestseller list like the NYT provides, kids' nonfiction is massively underrepresented compared to the sales nonfiction titles get in school/library and bookfair markets.

Libraries (especially school libraries) are the places kids can go to pick out the books they actually want to read and Melissa advises watching those shelves to understand what is to come in the nonfiction market by what is being checked out today. 

Melissa walked us through the five types of nonfiction with example titles and then shared how a librarian tracked their checkout rates by type from 2024–2025: 

Melissa Stewart's 5 Kinds of Nonfiction

Active (skills and learning oriented how-tos like cooking or craft books)

Browsable (DK titles, short bits of descriptive text with lavish amounts of visuals) 

Traditional (surveys and overviews of topics, usually longer texts with imagery)

Narrative (storytelling, narrative writing style that is ideal for biographies or historical events. (Melissa brings up how narrative nonfiction has evolved over the last few decades and recommends reading the NCTE's 2023 position statement concerning it here.))

Expository Literature (niche and highly specialized topics, innovative formats that impact text structure and imagery) 

Gamification within the reading journey is one example of an innovative format in expository nonfiction, Melissa uses BUTT OR FACE by Kari Lavelle as a great title to study on what is currently selling in kids' nonfiction and as a mentor text (now a series) for gamified, expository nonfiction.

Melissa came up with these categories and has excellent resources on her site, including learning more about these five types, that would help anyone improve their understanding of how to make great nonfiction for kids. 

Creating Memorable Characters That Stand Out on the Page

Sharon G. Flake is an award-winning author of over 1.8 million copies of her books sold globally.  Her work is taught in elementary schools , middle to high schools, as well as at college.  Most known for her classic novel The Skin I'm In, Flake has authored fifteen books including novels, picture books, short story collections and more.  

 Sharon loves young people, young readers. She feels she died and went to heaven to get to be able to write for younger people and be in their presence. She tries to crate work that is worthy their attention. We often think about what editors/agents/reviewers think of their work, but we should keep the young people, our readers top of mind.  

Some tips for creating memorable characters:

1. Let your character show you the way. 

Get out of the characters way and let them lead the way.

First sentences do a lot of heavy listed. The first line of THE SKIN I’M IN, “The first time I seen her, I got a bad feeling inside.”

You want to create characters that have texture. 

Sharon often doesn’t know who’s going to show up. She’s good at saying to the characters that do show up, “I’m going to let you lead the parade.” She says, “It’s not really my story. It’s my character’s story.”

You might wonder how that come out? Sharon says, your character knows you. They know what you value. They know what you like. They know what’s important to you. 

Sharon ask the room: How do your values show up on the pages of your book? 

2. Learn to erase yourself from your story. 

Sharon doesn’t want the author Sharon Flake to show up on the page. She wants it to be the kid, the character. 

Keep checking yourself: Would a kid this age say this? 

3. Give your characters a nearly impossible test.

4. Learn to slip into somebody else skin.

Artivism: Changing the Narrative through Creative Empathy with Nikkolas Smith

Artivism: 

Changing the Narrative through Creative Empathy

with Nikkolas Smith

Nikkolas Smith’s Artivism journey delves into the importance of art as an instrument of empathy, empowerment, and protest, combining art and activism to inspire others to help fix the broken bones of our society. Sharing his experiences as a Black Artist, from designing theme parks to reimagining superheroes, to creating compelling viral art and bestselling picture books focused on history and social justice, Smith's workshop is a tool to empower and uplift storytellers from all backgrounds.

Nikkolas Smith took us on his journey as an Artivist, and mapped how he has used his art to speak up and speak out about importance issues. 

 

An illustrator and film concept artist, Nikkolas lives in La, where he does his canvas and digital work. Whenever he presents to a group, he always starts with a picture he drew when he was young, which he calls his "psychedelic self portrait." He personally considers art as therapy and he invites people to tap into their younger self as believes everyone is an artist. So his initial project with them is to ask yourself, what you were making when you were 10?

Nikkolas started in architect, and attended Hampton University. He heard that Hampton had a relationship with Disney, which attracted him to the school and after entering a Disney Imagination competition, which he made it to finals, he became an Imagineer after graduation, designing theme parks around the world. It was a dream job, and the thing he thought he would be doing for the rest of his life. 

After 11 years, he thought, maybe architecture wasn't how he wanted to continue to make art. New thoughts started popping up and 2019, Nikkolas left Disney and became a full time illustrator but came back for one last architectural project.

The LEGACY TOWER. 

Nikkolas wanted to create something that paid homage to Black architects who faced discrimination and were never given their due. Nikkolas was inspired to rewrite their legacy that was pushed down. He incorporated patterns, images from these different architects to create the Legacy Tower.

"Create narrative and incorporate empathy in your art." Nikkolas now finds ways to infuse this into his work to make positive change to legacies that hadn't been celebrated in the past. 

A lot of Nikkolas' art pieces, and murals have to do with retelling and rewriting a narrative. 

"Tell an entire story in one image." - Nikkolas

From concept art for Sinners vs Space Jam, he keep coming up with ideas, trying to tell heroic stories while trying to capture the essence of a person, story or moment in history. Growing up he didn't have a lot of black characters to look up to so he is thankful that he was able to create and collaborate with corporation. 

He is in the business of "building bridges, not walls." 

Today, he questions: What is justice? What is patriotism? What make a heroic person, heroic qualities? And the question of what do you do with the super power you have? 

ART+Activism = Artivism

"It's an artist's duty to reflect the times in which we live" - Nina Simone

He has made art every Sunday for 11 years and uses that time as therapy. He documents historical things, or current events. He wants to make things that are relevant and say something about the world we live in, finding those stories and creatively talk about them. There are so many things in American history that can be talked about, from the past and present, across all cultures and people. 

His goal is to show the humanity of the people. 

About Nikkolas Smith
Nikkolas Smith, a native of Houston, Texas, is a Master of Architecture recipient from Hampton University. After designing theme parks at Walt Disney Imagineering for 11 years, he is now an ARTivist, Concept artist, Children's Books Author, Film Illustrator (Space Jam 2, Black Panther 2, Judah and the Black Messiah) and Movie poster designer (Black Panther, Soul, Beale Street, Southside With You, Dear White People, Stranger Fruit). He is the author/illustrator of the picture books "The Golden Girls of Rio" (nominated for an NAACP Image Award), My Hair Is Poofy And That's Okay. And World Cup Women . The 1619 Project: Born on the Water is his latest illustrated picture book and #1 NYT Bestseller in collaboration with Pulitzer Price-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renée Watson for Kokila and The NYT. He is a proud 2016 White House Innovators of Color fellow. His most famous and recognized works focus on Artivism. As an illustrator of color, Nikkolas creates captivating art that can spark important conversations around social justice in today's world and inspire meaningful change. Many of his viral and globally published sketches are included in his latest book Sunday Sketch: The Art of Nikkolas, a visual journey on life and a collection of more than 100 sketches he has done in the last five years. His works have been featured on TIME Magazine, The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, Buzzfeed, the Academy of Motion Pictures, The Guardian, ABC, NBC, KCET and many more. His art has been shared on social media by Michelle Obama, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, Van Jones, Shaun King, Rihanna, Colin Kaepernick, Janet Jackson, Viola Davis, Jamie Foxx, Erykah Badu, Lupita Nyong'o, Kendrick Lamar, Tracee Ellis Ross, Ava Duvernay, Common, Simone Biles, Miley Cirus, Mark Ruffalo, Amy Schumer and many others. Nikkolas also talks at conferences (TEDxWatts) and schools all over the country, and leads workshops in digital painting character and movie poster and design. He lives in Los Angeles, California. 

nikkolas.art

The AI Debate: What Children’s Book Creators Need to Know: Umair Kazi

The AI Debate: What Children’s Book Creators Need to Know: Umair Kazi

Moderated by Martha Brockenbrough

Umair Kazi: Director of Policy & Advocacy at the Authors Guild

This panel was full of SO MUCH information that I will be revisiting it myself but here are some highlights and great thoughts about AI.

On Definitions. Generative vs non-generative. What's the difference and where is the line? 

Umair: It's true that we can distinguish the two on a tool basis vs generative AI but AI is in everything now, though it has always been around in a way. For example, spellcheck is a form of AI. It is coded, not generative. Still a form of AI. But now, when we use grammar tools, you now get a revised version of what you wrote. 

The copyright office has a definition. Generative AI technology is technology that generates text, images, visual and audio material that was created by a human aka copyrightable material. Be mindful that generative AI is built on that copyrighted work. There is a line between it being a functional tool vs using it to create copyrightable content.  

In using AI: Is there a moral issue or are their practical business considerations? 

Umair: There are some legal boundaries but when we think about AI and authorship, you often find that no output of an generative AI is copyrightable. Reason being that copyright requires human authorship.

Courts have been working on this for many years prior to the boom of AI. For example, the "Monkey Selfie Case" where a monkey took pictures on a camera left in the forest and because their wasn't any sufficient human control over it, it brought in questionability to the copyright of the images and became problematic from a copyrightable point of view. 

Martha once asked a question on Google search and Google Gemini, what appears at the top, produced the wrong answer. Martha knew this was incorrect and argued with Google Gemini but did not take the corrections which presents potential problems. 

On Licensing with AI:

Umair: In training AI,  the nest practice is you have to get permission from the author. What do you get for this? They are starting to look at AI rights as subsidiary rights. In model clauses, they are pushing for a recommended 80 to 90% of profits from work that is used with AI.  

There are illustrative possibilities for the future, like e-books with an AI component but again, the artist should be compensated. 

Martha: "AI is creating mediocre work! We don't want mediocre work!" 

Umair: People say that "human written work has mistakes" but the language around imperfections should be considered. There is beauty in the humanness of art in all its imperfections.

Martha: Shakespeare and Dr. Seuss created words that have been added to the lexicon. Words will be fossilized if we continue to use AI. Example: we created Tang as powdered orange juice but it isn't as nutritious as OJ. Do we want to give our kids the literary equivalent of TANG or are they entitled to freshly squeeze HUMAN SOUL?

Grammarly? Is that okay?

Is it changing your voice? If AI is changing your voice to the point that it isn't your writing, is it worth it? Is it really making your expresson better? To judge if it's okay or not, depends on what it is doing, but now it can change your whole paragraph. 

"Don't surrender your thinking for AI." - Martha

Umair: I hate to put another obligation on the artist where you have to keep track of all of your process because someone might question your authorship but idea development is a tricky one in some ways. You can use AI to ideate but you can't use it in your writing. There has to be enough authorship" in your personal work. Idea vs expression, that is the dynamic at play. Idea re not protected by copyright but the expression is. In terms of clauses, we want to create a process if your work is rejected because of AI usage where the process record can come in to help. 

"I feel AI is an okay place to start (for research), but is never where you're going to end. A mama bird gets a worm, chews it up and gives it to the baby bird. That is what Google AI is kind of like." - Martha

Do you open up your work to scrapping by posting your stuff online?

Unfortunately, anything you post online is up for scrapping. We must assume that anything online, like a Google Doc, is making our stuff available. Sometimes you can opt out but some of that has changed. We need a massive political change and must assert control as a democracy over AI. 

Glaze is an option for illustrators to protect their work. 

Best advice for creator moving forward., Best practices and how do we cope?

Umair: Reminds me of a really wonderful quote; "the imperfect is our paradise." Though that quote is a critique of fascism, it can apply here. 

Have faith because one of the things I do see is that people are not drinking the "AI Koolaid." It can be tempting to use due to insecurity but I think a lot of AI use can compromise the author and AI is not a better writer than you!

About Umair Kazi

Umair Kazi is the Director of Policy & Advocacy at the Authors Guild, where he works on copyright, collective bargaining, antitrust, and artificial intelligence issues. Previously, Umair served as the Guild’s Staff Attorney, and advised members on legal issues related to the writing profession. Umair holds a J.D. from the University of Iowa College of Law and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Columbia University School of the Arts. He translates poetry from Urdu, with work published in several literary journals.

Industry Panel: The AI Debate — Kait Feldmann

Kait Feldmann is a children’s book agent at kt literary representing illustrators. She previously worked as an editor at HarperCollins and Scholastic. Kait is passionate about championing books by, about, and for BIPOC. In 2020 she received the CBC Diversity Outstanding Achievement Award. 

Moderator Martha Brockenbrough asks the panel if they are receiving AI generated submissions and if so, how are those handled?

KAIT: Most agencies and editors are now including official stances and clauses about not using AI.

Kait has started seeing more submissions with AI, and while some state their AI usage outright, Kait can still recognize AI-generated ones—most obviously from writers who think they need to include art to submit a picturebook manuscript. Kait reiterates that is NOT part of the submitting author's job. It's happened enough that Kait now has a form rejection for these AI submissions. While Kait is all for technology taking over dishes, laundry, and taxes she still prefers humans writing and making art.

KAIT: I don't want AI to touch any part of your creative process. 

The panel talks about how any content inputted into an AI tool like Claude or ChatGPT is no longer work under your copyright and is also used as training material by that LLM. Kait reminds us AI is technically a plagiarizing tool that has been scraping from published creators who have not been paid, credited, or given consent. 

She encourages people who want to use AI to write or illustrate to ask themselves why they don't feel like they are capable of creating it themselves? Kait says it's okay to not know answers and struggle with your creating, the real writing is in the revising. 

Kait adds there is an additional moral dilemma to using AI: The huge environmental strain of using LLMs like ChatGPT and Claude which run on the loud, water-guzzling data centers that are being built without appropriate environmental regulations (if any) overwhelmingly in poorer regions of countries where its residents have no political standing or funding to push back or stop the construction or pollution. Kait likens it to shopping on Amazon or Shein, it's up to you how comfortable you are contributing to known causes of the global climate crisis.

Industry Panel: The AI Debate - Ginee Seo

 

Ginee Seo is VP and Editorial Director of Ten Speed Young Readers, the children's book imprint at Ten Speed/Crown. She has worked in children's book publishing for over 35 years and has held a number of positions, including Executive Publishing Director of Children’s Books at Chronicle Books; VP, Associate Publisher at Atheneum Books for Young Readers, where she also had her own eponymous imprint; and VP, Editorial Director at Harper Trophy. 

A note on this conversation, as AI is quite broad. In this conversation, the panelist are speaking to generative AI technology. Keeping in mind that generative AI has been built on copyrighted material (without compensation for that work). 

Martha asks about AI clauses in contracts.

Ginee shares that PRH doesn’t have a specific AI clause as of now, but they do already have a a clause that expresses that the work is solely created by the author. That said, they (PRH) very much believe in protecting copyright. On the copyright page of each book, there is a statement that any use of generative AI using the book is not allowed (protecting the person/people behind the book). 

She also shares that at Ten Speed, they have core principles:

• Human authorship is essential

• Originality and IP integrity is nonnegotiable

• Transparency and early communication are key

She says it all comes down to protecting you. 

Ginee wanted to be on this panel to share this message: Protect your text. Do not run your text through AI. If you do, you are giving away your material. People are not aware how invasive and intrusive AI is. 

Ginee is not seeing any request from agents or authors to not put their work through AI, but she thinks that’s likely to change

She is asked if any publishers are taking their IP work and putting it into AI to generate more work like it. Ginee hopes not, but she could see a possibility of that happening. 

On the question of using AI to research, Ginee says to consider the information are you giving it. Know it can be wrong. That it is only just a starting place.

Final advice: Ginee fears that maybe the conversation has created a bit of fear. She just wants you all, as book creators, to know: Do not make it easy for these companies to take your IP. Don't take the shortcuts. And, if you were to write something to share with publishing gatekeepers you might say, "All work done by an imperfect human." Imperfection is what makes us beautiful. It's what makes art. 

What an informative conversation about this important topic. If you want to listen, you can still register for the conference at scbwi.org and watch the replay. 

Opening Keynote: Pam Muñoz Ryan

 

Pam Muñoz Ryan has written over forty books for young people that include picture books for the very young, picture books for older readers, and the middle grade and young adult novels, Mañanaland, RIDING FREEDOM, ESPERANZA RISING, BECOMING NAOMI LEÓN, PAINT THE WIND, THE DREAMER, and the Newbery Honor book, ECHO (Feb. 2015.) 

Pam earned masters degree with the plan to teach child literature at a college. But didn’t end up doing that, instead she started writing for kids. Her first books were picture books. 

RIDING FREEDOM, her first novel, started as a picture book and her editor encouraged her to instead write it as a novel. (This is not uncommon that writers start a story as a picture book but there’s more story there to tell.)

A treat: Pam gives a peek into her working world. So much fun to see her office (all tidied up for the photo). To see her bulletin board and calendar. She also gives us a peek into some of her pages, with editorial notes handwrittn on the pages. Pam shares that her editor is often asking many questions of her and her story.

Pam will share her confessions (truths about Pam and her writing, which might not be true about you). Here is a sampling?

• As a kid, Pam didn’t know being a writer was a job you could have. She thought writers were dead.
• She was a late bloomer in the writing world.
• As a child, Pam never questioned why she didn’t see herself in books, for many reasons, including the time in which she grew (there were few choices and she didn’t know otherwise)
• Pam does wonder what it would have been like if she would have read even one book where she could see herself in its pages
• Pam has been able to live vicariously through readers who have found themselves her in her books
• Pam wishes writers would ask less about how to get published (the successes) and instead about the failures. A few things she'd share about: Setting aside a manuscript that I had over-shopped; Getting published and discovering I could still fail. Rewriting. And rewriting. And rewriting. 
• Pam shares this profession is often frustrating and test your patience. "If you’re not trying and failing, you are going nowhere."
• Pam doesn’t track drafts, or her daily word count. She can’t separate the writing from the rewriting. It’s all rewriting. Reading and rewriting and inching the story forward. “For me writing is all revision.” She says it's a very messy evolution. 
• When it comes to writers block, Pam doesn’t have time. This is a job. She says, “I go to work, whether I want to or not.”
• Pam doesn’t have a muse! 
• If there’s one thing Pam wants us all to know: Momentum is far more important than inspiration. 

Welcome Summer 2026 with Sarah Baker

Sarah Baker, Executive Director of SCBWI, leads our virtual conference welcome this morning. Sarah began her career in children’s book publishing at Penguin Young Readers Group as a designer. Her debut illustrated picture book, Becca & Bubbe's Bucket List, written by Laura Gehl came out this May.

Sarah reminds us this conference is for anyone and everyone interesting in making books for kids and young adults, and this year's virtual format again lets even more people tune in from all over the world. Based on live polling, the makeup of attendees is over 60% pre-published, and over 60% writers.

Sarah gives a shout out to this year's conference materials illustrator, Heegyum Kim.

And invites us to remember two great names in children's literature we lost this year, Mildred Pitts Walter and Jane Yolen.

If you want to follow along with the rest of the conference, register at https://www.scbwi.org/events/virtual-summer-conference-2026. Replays of the conferences will be available after the conference for a limited time.

Conference art by Heegyum Kim

Team Blog is Ready to GO!

Elated, Hydrated, and Motivated! 

Team Blog is back for another round of the SCBWI Conferences! This summer, Jaime Temairik and Jolie Stekly will be returning to live blog this international conference. Countless people will be logging on and locking in for an exciting weekend of panels, discussion, breakout sessions, virtual social hours, and more! And Team Blog will be capturing highlights throughout the whole weekend. 

Follow along with us here on The Official SCBWI Conference Blog and check out all there is to offer at SCBWI! Don't forget to tag SCBWI with the hashtag #scbwiSummer26!